Avid Reader: A Life [L0104]

2016 HCDJ in Gift-Worthy condition. A spirited and revealing memoir by the most celebrated editor of his time. In Avid Reader, Gottlieb writes with wit and candor about succeeding William Shawn as the editor of The New Yorker, and the challenges and satisfactions of running America's preeminent magazine. Sixty years after joining Simon and Schuster, Gottlieb is still at it--editing, anthologizing, and, to his surprise, writing. But this account of a life founded upon reading is about more than the arc of a singular career--one that also includes a lifelong involvement with the world of dance. It's about transcendent friendships and collaborations, "elective affinities" and family, psychoanalysis and Bakelite purses, the alchemical relationship between writer and editor, the glory days of publishing, and--always--the sheer exhilaration of work.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "For anyone who loves books and literary gossip, this book is a feast. It appears he knows every writer and celebrity worth knowing and he's forthright about them-many he loves as lifelong friends, others were 'difficult" and some were friends where the relationship ended badly. I liked this book a lot-liked the writer and his tastes and his work ethic. All in all, a highly enjoyable read."; "I don't buy many books of literary auto-bio but Gottlieb's self-deprecating wit and name-dropping were an irresistible draw. He gets five stars for the pleasure of his company, not necessarily for his literary style. If you like avid readers who are brazen New York raconteurs you'll likely like this book."; "There is only one Bob Gottlieb. And the book he was destined to write could only have been this one: addictive, enchanting, exhilarating, hilarious and utterly magical. What a life! What a book! Gottlieb has shaped the literature of our lifetime as effectively as Balanchine shaped dance or Rodin shaped sculpture. Our debt to him is unpayable and now he has given us even more, a window into a fascinating world no one else has allowed us because no one else could. A positively essential read."